As order spins out of control, it leaves chaos in its wake. Around the world and here at home, 2017 has seen the erosion of that order and the institutions that protect it — and we cannot act soon enough to reverse this trajectory.

Globally, the institutions of the post–World War II liberal world order continued their tragic decline. After 70 years of the greatest stability, security, and prosperity the world has ever known, we are letting that order slip through our fingers. If we do, we will find that the chaos left behind will neither protect our interests nor promote our values — and it will surely not secure the peace.

The liberal world order rejected the principles that led to two world wars — ethno-nationalism, spheres of influence, and imperialism — and replaced it with a system based on universal values, human rights, rule of law, and national sovereignty. This order did not occur by accident; it was the result of tireless efforts to build its foundation and advance the values that secured it. We must now fight vigorously to defend that order against the chaos that threatens its very existence.

But as defenders of the liberal order, we have not done our job. We grew complacent and lost touch with those who were experiencing hardship. We let our values be challenged and failed to come to their defense. At times we tried to do too much, and at others we did not do enough. We made mistakes.

As a result, in 2017 we have seen the steady erosion of the world order. As many across the globe turned away from universal values, they found comfort in the old ties of ethnicity, race, and sectarianism. They became increasingly resentful of “the other” they saw in immigrants, refugees, and minority groups. They turned inward and embraced nationalism. Some seem to have given up on the liberal order entirely, preferring chaos to a system that does not seem to have worked for them. We must acknowledge these realities without retreating.

To maintain stability, ensure security, and expand prosperity for this generation and those to come, our only hope is in driving back chaos and recapitalizing the institutions of order. Indispensable to defending against chaos is America’s role in the world. After eight years of “leading from behind” from the previous administration, our allies and partners around the world came to question the reliability of U.S. global leadership. Now, with few exceptions, the current administration offers little reprieve from the chaos of a world without American leadership. Our president sees virtue in his unpredictability and prefers uninformed tweets to intentional strategies. We owe our allies and partners — and the American people — better.

Here at home, our own institutions have also fallen victim to declining order, and as a result have become engulfed in ascending chaos. Most personally to me, I have watched the U.S. Congress become only a shadow of the deliberative body it was intended to be — and the one it was when I was first elected to office 35 years ago.

In Washington, political chaos reigns. Polarization and partisanship have led to gridlock. No matter which party is in power, the majority seems intent on imposing its will, while the minority seems solely interested in preventing any accomplishments. As we stumble from crisis to crisis, we have become incapable of doing our jobs, dealing with big problems, and even fulfilling our most basic legislative duties. Compromise and working across the aisle have become political liabilities, when they were meant to define our legislative process.

In 2017, we saw plenty of examples of the total breakdown of regular order — the set of processes, rules, customs, and protocols by which Congress is supposed to govern itself and do business on behalf of the American people. This has led to a paralysis that has rendered the institution largely incapable of exercising its constitutional responsibilities as a co-equal branch of government. The system our founders built was not intended to function this way. Congress has diminished its own role and, ultimately, created the space for political chaos.

Even as order seems to have yielded to chaos, both in the United States and abroad, no one should make the mistake of betting against America. We remain the greatest democracy in the world, and at our core, we still embody the universal values of the postwar era. If we take up the mantle of reviving the universal liberal values and our national political institutions, we can choose order over chaos.

I guess I have mixed feelings about John McCain fielding this article. He’s hardly a modern conservative, but his brand of conservatism gave way to the kind of conservatism that we have today, which is gradually rendering this nation as vesicle in a world dominated by corporations. I don’t give a shit how much money you make or how successful you’ve been, countries and corporations are not the same thing, and one should not be the same as the other.

On that note, my country is fucked, and I have this sinking feeling that it isn’t temporary. We are in a state from which I think it will be difficult to emerge from without actual severe civil unrest – be it a war or something else. I guess we all could have done more to stop it, but John McCain was there in Washington when much of the damage was done. He and his cohort have made their mark on history. I wish I was going to live long enough to read about this in the history books. I’d be fascinated to know what an objective autopsy of this situation would reveal, but it ain’t happening any time soon.

OK, he’s awake. He recognizes that people are fed up to pissed off. What is he doing to change things when he voted yes on that ungodly tax reform bullshit? All talk, no action. I always thought he was serious about his government job…until he voted yes. He is now in that swamp with the rest of them. And, by the way, once he wrote this “confession” what did he do with it — was it published — was it read to trump out loud — was it simply distributed to his fellow congressmen? I wonder how he feels about supporting Roy Moore?

Until or Unless the Congressmen in our government who give a crap about the American people stand up and take control and refuse to step aside for trump and his cult, it will only get worse. Until or Unless the American people who give a crap about our country stand up and not step aside, it will only get worse. Take the time today to send your emails and letters to all your representatives demanding changes!

What John does not address (perhaps purposefully because he is just a much a part of our national corruption as any other US politician), is that if the US electoral process is so thoroughly compromised by moneyed interests – domestic and foreign – there is no way to repair the abomination that we call our “Elected Government” – and most especially the Executive and Legislative Branches. There is no logical way that our nation can get qualified candidates using a broadly unqualified voter electorate, using minimum candidate qualification standards (if any beyond the power of money), and having the candidates post their own (and enablers) biased records of their qualifications as their qualifications to be in office.

Barrack Obama was a great orator, legally/academically well qualified for office, but had minimal applied political experience to qualify as any nation’s President. Donald Trump had debatable business experience – a mixture of successes and failures, a checkered legal background with numerous questionably legal associations with groups and individuals considered illegal or having conflicting and competitive interests to the US and beyond leading a family business – had zero leadership experience in a national and international political forum including being totally unfamiliar with his nations Constitution. Thus, he was totally unqualified at any level to be President of the US – as his actions since being elected have proven beyond any doubt to the reasonable mind.

What John doesn’t get is if our compromised electoral process is not fixed there is no hope at all of our country or its government yielding the ideals that most US citizens claim they respect and want. To achieve the goals of our founders we must achieve an electoral process that reliably and without bias yields experientially qualified candidates to a known and agreed standard. To do so, we must achieve registered voters that have passed minimum standardized tests of their knowledge on all candidates produced by an unbiased third party for the election, provide a complete and transparent financial history of their lives – assets, transactions, foreign involvements of personal and corporate businesses owned, managed, or directed and a standardized scenario of current issues and how they might address them. Our current system – obviously as of 2016 (if not before) has been demonstrably shown to be a totally corrupted, for profit, and an insecure (from within and without) with an election process that yields exactly what one would expect from such a system – unqualified and corrupted for-profit candidates who have great personal interest in maintaining the status quo that keeps them in power.

We the American people don’t deserve any more than we work to achieve and demand from our government. It is time for that work now. Time for those demands for honest, efficient and capable governance to be expressed physically and fiscally by all of us – as necessary to achieve the changes not only for a better government, but one that will allow us to survive as a nation, a people, and under the ideals that our founding father’s hoped and worked to achieve in their time and conditions. We can adapt our electoral process to preserve those ideals – otherwise they will continue to be demeaned and lost. Great countries are founded by great minds – as the US was. Great countries can only stay great – by having the most qualified minds in government – daily maintaining and managing the nations character, governing efficiency and the fiscal business of governing. To so this government must route corruption and greed daily – less that corruption and greed destroy the government, country and its people. Without repairing our electoral process’s integrity and credibility – frankly we’re done as a great nation. Without a qualified, honest and efficient Executive and Legislative Branches – there is simply no path to greatness, there is even less for basic survival in the current geopolitical world.

John McCain is a war hero that endured having to watch Jane Fonda having a good time in Hanoi while he was being tortured. It seems to me that he has a pretty good grip on reality and deserves a lot of respect (and don’t tell me to go fuck myself again, Walt)

John McCain was indeed a war hero/survivor and he has my respect and millions more too. Jane Fonda was a ‘kid’ way back then and she protested in a way she thought was right — and there were millions who protested the Vietnam War, in many ways Some ran to Canada to hide. Some faked medical issues. One faked horrible bone spurs and eventually became President Puke.